The President of the United States

The executive branch of the federal government is headed by the President of the United States. In 1789 George Washington became the nation’s first President. The President is the nation’s most powerful elected official.

The Constitution sets forth certain qualifications that the President of the United States must meet:

1. The President must be a native-born American citizen.

2. The President must be at least 35 years of age.

3. The President must have been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years.

These are the only qualifications for President mentioned in the Constitution. However, there also have been a number of unwritten rules about who could be elected President. For example, all American Presidents have been men. All have been Christian. Most Presidents have attended college. Many have been lawyers. Most have held other political offices before becoming President.

The President is elected to a four-year term and may be re-elected for a second term of office. The original Constitution did not state how many terms a President could serve. George Washington set the tradition of a limit of two terms. He refused to run for the Presidency a third time when he was urged to do so. This two-term tradition was not broken until Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a third term as President in 1940. In 1944 he won a fourth term.

The Constitution provides that “the executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” This means that the President is responsible for executing, or carrying out, the laws passed by Congress. Because the President has the job of executing the nation’s laws, the President is often called the nation’s Chief Executive. As Chief Executive, the President must take an active role in all phases of government.

The President plays a large role in shaping the laws of the United States by recommending, or suggesting, needed laws to Congress. To carry out this constitutional provision, the President delivers several messages to Congress each year. The President also sends Congress a budget message, recommending how the federal government should raise and spend its money.

As head of the armed forces of the United States, or Commander in Chief, the President has important powers. All military officers, in time of war or in peacetime, take their orders from the President. The President does not actually lead American Forces into battle. However, the President is in constant touch with the nation’s military leaders. The President also has the final word in planning how a war is to be fought. This is a serious responsibility in the age of modern weapons.